Fated

8

I came awake into darkness. My chest hurt, everything was black and the screams were still ringing in my ears. As I lay tense, my heart pounding, I realised it had been a dream. My flat was silent. I lay there for a few minutes, letting my breathing slow until my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, then I rose and walked on bare feet to the window. Same old nightmares.

Once I was leaning out the window, taking deep breaths of the night air, I felt better. Being enclosed always reminds me of that time and I’ve learnt that an open sky is the best way to throw it off. I’ve always liked looking out of my window at night; something about the density, all those thousands of pinpoints and every one a person or a family. I could tell from the murmur that it was about four o’clock in the morning. Camden is never silent, but this is the quietest it gets. I could hear the sounds of distant music filtering through the bridges and over the canal, but my street was still.

I don’t have many scars. Dark mages are quite skilled with methods of torture that don’t cause permanent physical damage. My chest still hurt though — a phantom pain. I rubbed at it until it faded and leant on the window-sill, looking out into the night. A three-quarter moon was high in the sky, casting London in a pale light that reflected off the rooftops.

For some reason, instead of Luna, I found myself thinking of the woman we’d left behind, Deleo. I was sure she was someone from my past — probably from my time with Richard. It’s hard to remember someone just from the sound of their voice, but I’ve got access to ways of looking that normal people don’t. I was pretty sure I could figure out who she was if I wanted to.

Except I didn’t. Yes, Deleo was after me. Yes, I could probably protect myself better if I knew who she was. But even that wasn’t enough to make me willingly take myself back to that place in my memory. My time with Richard is a place I’ve locked up in my mind; I don’t think about it and I don’t go back to it. Instead I ran through a brief exercise to clear my head then, when I was calm again, returned to bed and fell asleep quickly.

When I woke again, morning sunlight was streaming through the window. It took me a moment to recognise the noise that had pulled me awake — it had been the sound of my letterbox. I went downstairs in my underwear and discovered a small package had been dropped through the front door. I took it upstairs, scanning and opening it as I went, and unwrapped a roll of tissue to reveal a stylised stone key — a gate stone. It didn’t come with a note, but I already knew where it would lead.

I went back upstairs and checked the news. A footnote on the news sites mentioned that the British Museum was closed due to a fire. The Council has excellent connections with the British government. I went to make my preparations.

Choosing your equipment for a meeting with other mages is a tricky business. It’s a fine line between being prepared for trouble and being seen as the trouble. Visible weapons were obviously out. I really wanted to take my mist cloak, but given I’d been wearing it when I’d run from the Council reinforcements on Friday night, that wasn’t an option either. I was fairly sure that between my cloak and the confusion, none of the Council mages had managed to get a good look at my face. If they had, this trip was going to be eventful. In the end, I picked out a nondescript set of casual clothes with relatively few tools or weapons, hoping to appear as low-key as possible.

Once I was done, I hung the CLOSED notice on the door, checked my wards, checked to see if my phone had any messages from Luna (it didn’t), then went into the back room and activated the gate stone. A shimmering portal opened in the air and I stepped through. I could have walked to the museum in twenty minutes, but if I did that I’d have to explain how I knew where the gate stone was going to lead. Right now I was in the Council’s good books, if only because they needed me, but I didn’t think it would take much to change that.

I came down onto a polished white floor, my feet echoing around a wide room. I was back in the British Museum’s Great Court. The area I’d stepped off into was marked off by ropes, and a chime rang in the air as I emerged.

The Great Court was mostly empty. The information desks and shops were deserted and most of the people I could see looked like Council security. A man dressed in brown and grey had been talking to two guards stationed at the entrance; now he finished up and walked over to me.

‘Morning,’ the man said once he was close enough. He was in his middle years, with iron-grey hair and a tough, competent manner. Although I’d only seen him for a few seconds, I recognised him. He’d been the one in command of the reinforcements, the one who’d shouted at Cinder to stop. I kept my expression relaxed, and was relieved to see no recognition in his eyes.

‘Alexander Verus,’ I said. ‘I’m looking for the leader of the investigation team.’

As I said my name, the man nodded. ‘You’ve found him. Griff Blackstone.’ He offered his hand and I shook it. ‘Good to see you. Been asking for a diviner for weeks.’

Griff led me towards the Reading Room and the curving staircase up. Now that I had a chance to count, I could see there were at least a dozen Council guards around the Great Court, stationed at the doors and corners. There were no traces of Friday’s battle; the floor and stairs were neat and flawless. Earth and matter mages can repair stone so well you’d never know it had been damaged. ‘Tight security,’ I said as we ascended the stairs.

‘Need it. You heard about the attack?’

I looked at Griff inquiringly, which he seemed to take as a no. ‘Some team, Friday night. Broke through the barrier and set off the relic guardian. Hell of a mess.’

‘How many were there?’

‘Three, maybe four. Wish we’d gotten a good look at them.’

Glad you didn’t. ‘Are we clear for civilians?’

Griff nodded as we reached the top of the stairs. ‘Museum’s closed until further notice. Everyone you meet’s been cleared.’ The restaurant at the top of the stairs had been converted into a temporary headquarters, and a dozen or so mages were gathered there: the investigation team. They all stopped to watch as we walked in and I could tell they knew who I was even before Griff introduced me.

Other mages have an odd attitude towards diviners. By the standards of, say, elemental mages, diviners are complete wimps. We can’t gate, we can’t attack, we can’t shield and when it comes to physical action our magic is about as useful as a bicycle in a trampolining contest. But we can see anywhere and learn anything and there’s no secret we can’t uncover if we try hard enough. So when an elemental mage looks at a diviner, the elemental mage knows he could take him in a straight fight with no more effort than it would take to tie his shoes. On the other hand, the elemental mage also knows that the diviner could find out every one of his most dirty and embarrassing secrets and, should he feel like it, post copies of them to everyone the elemental mage has ever met. It creates a mixture of uneasiness and contempt that doesn’t encourage warm feelings. There’s a reason most of my friends aren’t mages.

So as I was introduced to the team I wasn’t expecting a big welcome, and I didn’t get one; polite neutrality was the order of the day. But just because I wasn’t making friends didn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention. It was the defences I was interested in, and from what I could see they’d been beefed up heavily. There were overlapping wards over the entire museum, both alarms and transportation locks. The roped-off area I’d gated into was probably one of only two or three spots still accessible.

Once the investigation team and I had finished pretending to be friendly, Griff led me into the museum, passing more guards on the way. The landing above now held four guards instead of two, and the barrier had been strengthened — now it was an opaque wall blocking the top of the stairs. ‘Barrier’s pass-coded,’ Griff said as we walked up the stairs. ‘Pretty much the only thing that went right for us. The mages who mounted the raid couldn’t get round the alarm. Had to set it off as they went in.’

‘Uh-huh,’ I said, studying the ward. The password had been changed and I made a mental note to spend sixty seconds or so and re-crack it before I left. It’s funny, really. Even when people go specifically looking for a diviner, they still never seem to grasp what we can do.

The room inside was the same. The statue was still at the centre, the stone man looking forward imperiously with his hand extended, and I gave it a narrow look. If you’re going to build something that sets a lightning elemental on anyone who touches it wrong, you could at least have the decency to put up a warning sign or something. This time, though, there was company.

Another mage was examining the statue on his knees, a teenager in scuffed brown clothes. He had a mop of untidy black hair and a pair of glasses that he kept pushing up the bridge of his nose, only for them to fall back down again a second later.

‘Sonder,’ Griff said, and the young man jumped to his feet, startled. ‘Diviner’s here. Show him around.’ He turned to me. ‘You good?’

I nodded. ‘I’ll get to work.’

‘Sonder’ll get you whatever you need. Tell me if you get anywhere. We could use a break.’ Griff turned and walked back down the stairs, vanishing through the black wall of the barrier without a ripple.

Sonder scrambled to his feet. ‘Um, hi. Oh, you’re the diviner?’

‘That’s me,’ I said, looking around.

‘I’m David. Everyone calls me Sonder, though.’ Sonder started to extend his hand, then hesitated and stopped. ‘You’re here to look at it too? Oh!’ I had walked up to the statue and Sonder hovered anxiously, not quite willing to pull me away. ‘Don’t put anything in the left hand!’

‘Relax,’ I said as I examined the statue. ‘I wasn’t planning to.’

‘Oh good. The defence systems are really heavy. I mean, I haven’t actually seen them personally, but still.’

I gave a brief glance through the futures of me interacting with the statue and found that nothing had changed. Every future in which I put something in the statue’s hand led to the lightning elemental materialising in the middle of the room and trying to kill us. I took a look at the statue’s hands. While the left one was empty, the right one clasped an unmarked wand. I pointed to it. ‘This is what everyone’s here for?’

Sonder nodded. ‘That’s the fateweaver. It’s just a representation, though, the real thing is inside.’

‘Uh-huh. Sonder? Maybe you could help me with something.’

‘Really?’ Sonder sounded surprised, but pulled himself together quickly. ‘Well, okay. I mean, yes. If I can.’

‘Everyone keeps talking about getting inside this thing,’ I said. ‘How?’

‘Oh, right.’ Sonder seemed to relax. ‘Well, you see, the statue is the focal point for a Mobius spell. It’s one of the techniques that was lost during the post-war period, but one of the Alicaern manuscripts has a good description. A Mobius spell takes the section of space it enchants and gives it a half-twist to bring it out of phase with reality. The ends of the enclosed space collapse inwards and join with each other to form a spatial bubble. Now, obviously, the natural result of that would be that the bubble would drift away, and of course once that happens there’s no way to reestablish a link, so you need a focus to anchor it to our physical universe. Once it’s been set up, there’s no way to find the bubble from anywhere in the universe except via the focus. We’ve actually discovered Mobius focuses before, but this is the first time …’

As Sonder kept talking, I watched him out of the corner of my eye. Now I took a closer look I could see he was actually twenty or so; he just looked younger. He didn’t look like an apprentice, though — I pegged him as a new journeyman, still fresh out from under a master’s supervision. The ones outside had been less green. But were they tough enough?

There’s a reason Dark mages are feared. It’s not because their magic is any more powerful than its less evil counterpart, it’s because of the people who use it. Life as a Dark mage is savage and brutal, an endless war for status and power with shifting alliances and betrayals. The infighting is the reason Dark mages can’t unite; they’re actually far more dangerous to each other than anyone else, though it’s hard to remember that when one of them’s after you.

But the same infighting that weakens Dark mages as a group is also what makes them so deadly as individuals. Dark mages who survive to adulthood are the toughest and most ruthless people in the world. Light mages, on the other hand, live in a society where getting places is mostly about political skill, and most of the mages I’d met in the restaurant would have gotten on the team through having the right connections. Don’t get me wrong, politics among Light mages can be rough, but they play by rules. Dark mages don’t.

If Deleo, Cinder and Khazad decided they really wanted to get in here, I knew who I’d put my money on.

‘… so while there’s no way to test it, in theory there’s no actual reason why the gateway aspect of the focus would decay over time,’ Sonder was saying. He paused, seeming to realise that I’d been quiet. ‘Um, Mr Verus?’

‘Just Alex is fine,’ I said. ‘So what you’re saying is that this statue is the only door in, and it’s locked.’

Sonder hesitated. ‘Well, I suppose you could put it like that.’

‘If it’s locked, what’s the key?’

‘Well, that’s what the team’s been working on. The senior members are pretty sure it just needs the right type of key item placed into the statue’s hand. Unfortunately, um, there have been a few issues fabricating one.’

‘Hm.’ I gave Sonder a look. ‘Exactly how many times have they tried?’

‘Uh …’ Sonder scratched his head. ‘I’m not actually sure. I wasn’t allowed here until a few days ago.’

‘And how come there isn’t anyone else around?’

‘Ah, well … there were more when I arrived, but after they told me to try to figure out a way to get it open, they left. They told me to keep them up to date.’

‘Ah,’ I said. In other words, no one had the faintest clue how to open the thing. That was why Lyle had approached me on Friday — it was because the investigation team had tried literally everything else. I wondered how many times they’d set the lightning elemental off, and how many people had been killed or wounded before the mages had wised up and started keeping their distance. That was why everyone else was on the other side of the museum: they didn’t want to be in range if we became the next ones to trip the switch.

‘You studied under an academic mage, right?’ I asked Sonder. ‘What did you specialise in? Magical theory?’

Sonder blinked. ‘History, actually.’

‘Do you know who this is a statue of?’

Sonder paused. ‘You really want to know?’

I nodded and Sonder seemed to light up. ‘Wow. That’s … You know, you’re the first one who’s ever asked me that.’

‘Let me guess,’ I said, as I walked around the statue, studying it. ‘The mages on the team just wanted to know if you could open it.’

‘Yes. I mean … Um, well …’ Sonder cleared his throat, a little self-conscious. ‘Well, uh, the robes are in the Late Precursor style, and the design is very similar to the surviving pieces of post-war sculpture. The others think it’s just a statue but,’ Sonder pushed his glasses up, warming to his theme, ‘the very first thing I did was look through our records. Well, there wasn’t anything from the post-war period, but when I looked through our records of the Dark Wars I found it straightaway. His name was Abithriax, and he was a general in the Light armies.’ Sonder pointed to the wand clasped in the statue’s hand. ‘You see, the fateweavers weren’t just weapons, they were also symbols of rank. Now, according to the records, Abithriax was killed in the closing months of the Dark Wars, just a few years before this must have been built. So I don’t think this relic was just built to store the fateweaver, I think it was built as a tomb.’

I frowned. ‘A general’s tomb …’ I looked at the statue, proud and commanding. Somehow it felt right. ‘So you think they buried him with his weapon?’

Sonder nodded. ‘I think so. There aren’t any records I can find to confirm it though.’

‘No, I think you might be right.’ I stood thinking for a little while. ‘Sonder, can you do me a favour? Keep researching this. I’m not sure if it’ll help us get in, but it might be important once we do.’

‘Oh. Um, yes, okay.’ Sonder paused. ‘You think you’re going to get inside?’

‘Yup.’

‘How?’

‘No idea.’

Sonder paused. ‘Then why are you so sure?’

I smiled. ‘Because so many people are after me. Give me some space — this might take a while.’

Sonder stepped well back and watched as I stood in front of the statue and closed my eyes. I stood quietly for a minute to clear my mind, then began methodically to look into the future.

The statue was the focal point of the room. I looked into the futures of my interacting with it and found it very easy. Every future in which I did anything to the statue, or placed anything in its hands, led to exactly the same result: the huge lightning elemental appearing in the middle of the room and attacking us. I was slightly reassured to notice that in none of the probable futures did the elemental get me. I was also reassured to notice that the future Sonder did a pretty good job of making himself scarce, too. He was obviously faster than he looked.

I settled down to the job of scanning through the futures one by one, looking for the future in which I activated the statue without triggering the elemental. It was slow, labori ous work, and time dragged by as I stood there searching through the futures as they flickered and changed, looking for the one in which I did the right thing. I went through a thousand futures, two thousand, three thousand, trying every object, every action, every combination of spells. Nothing changed.

I was so absorbed that I actually jumped when my phone rang, snapping me out of my trance. I checked my watch to see that I’d been at it for two hours. Sonder was on the other side of the room, going through a stack of books. I shook myself awake and looked at my phone. The number was unknown. I picked up. ‘Talisid.’

‘Hello, Mr Verus,’ Talisid’s voice said. ‘I’m glad you made it home safely.’

‘I’d ask how you got my number, but I think I can guess.’

‘And I’d ask how you knew it was me, but I think I can guess that too. Have you given any thought to our offer?’

I glanced to check that Sonder wasn’t within hearing distance, did a brief scan for eavesdropping spells, then turned away and lowered my voice just to be on the safe side. ‘What exactly are you offering?’

‘Assistance. Starting from tomorrow, I’ll be present at the museum as official Council liaison. I’ll be able to help with any resources you require.’

‘And what would you want in exchange for this generosity?’

Talisid sighed. ‘Let’s stop fencing, Verus. We want to stop any ambitious individuals taking the fateweaver for themselves. If you can retrieve it and deliver it to the Council, that’s fine. If you can’t retrieve it, that’s fine too. Mostly, we’d like to resolve this with as few people killed as possible. Are you interested, or not?’

I was silent for a long time. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘I’m not promising anything, but I’ll meet you to talk things over. Six o’clock at Centre Point?’

‘That’ll be fine. See you then.’ Talisid hung up.

Talisid’s call had broken my concentration. I turned back to the statue and started to slip back into my trance, then shook my head and stopped. This wasn’t working. If there was any remotely possible way I could activate this thing, I would have found it by now. I hadn’t, and that meant that with what I had here, it wasn’t possible.

I looked at the statue. Abithriax’s stone eyes stared back at me. The longer I looked at him, the more expression I seemed to notice in his face. He did look like a general — confident, as if he already knew he was going to win. I wondered if he’d been wearing that same expression when he died.

I remembered what Sonder had told me. The mages who’d built this thing had known what they were doing; tricking it wasn’t going to work. Maybe I was going about this the wrong way. Instead of trying to work it out by myself, I should take my cue from the people who knew more than I did. Levistus obviously thought I had a good chance of opening this door, or he wouldn’t have revealed so much, but he didn’t know for sure. Deleo, Cinder and Khazad had made their own attempt on Friday night using a fake key, but it hadn’t worked. Then what?

Then they’d gone after Luna.

Luna …

And suddenly I got it. Maybe you’ve already guessed by now, and you’re sitting there wondering how I could take so long to figure it out. If you are, all I can say is that it’s a hell of a lot harder to step back and look at the big picture when you have to keep watching your feet for landmines. The relic key was Luna’s red crystal cube. And since Luna was the cube’s mistress, she’d have to be the one to place the cube in the statue’s hand.

It all fit. That was why Cinder had been willing to kill me when he’d come searching for me on Friday. He and Deleo hadn’t been able to find the cube so he’d intended to use my divination magic as a backup, never knowing that the cube was lying on the ground right in front of him. Khazad hadn’t known about the cube either and so he’d come after me, intending to press-gang me into service or kill me so that I wouldn’t help anyone else. After the failed break-in, Deleo and Khazad had followed the cube’s trail to Luna and tried to hunt her down in Camden, and when that had failed, all three had tracked her to the ball last night. I remembered Deleo’s words to Luna: ‘You have something that belongs to me’. They’d known Luna had been the one to take the cube … but they didn’t know that Luna had to be the one to open it or they’d have just snatched her without asking questions. And that meant that right now, I was the only person who knew the secret to opening this door.

For a moment I felt a rush of excitement. But then, as I made the connection, my heart went cold. They knew the cube was the way in, and they thought Luna had the cube. They’d be doubling their efforts to find her. ‘I have to go,’ I said, and started moving. Sonder said something, but I wasn’t listening any more.

I passed Griff at the restaurant talking with another mage. He frowned, then followed me, catching me up as I hurried down the stairs. ‘Well?’

‘I need something from home,’ I said.

‘What, right now?’

‘Right now.’

Griff looked irritated, and was about to argue, then stopped. ‘Fine. Just hurry up.’

As I left the museum, I was already working on plans. The annuller effect should keep Luna safe from magical detection, at least for now. But Deleo and Cinder had seen us by the arch so they’d know that too. I walked along the street, ticking off other possibilities. A really powerful spell could theoretically find Luna even through the annuller. Unlikely, but possible. A more serious threat would be if they switched away from using magic. There are plenty of mundane ways to find someone. Would Deleo be the type to think of that?

I reached a corner. A black cab was passing and I hailed it and jumped in. ‘Cla-’ I started, then changed my mind. ‘Camden.’ I’d need to get equipped first. The driver nodded and pulled away.

As the driver wound his way northwards through the London streets, I pulled out my phone and dialled Luna’s number. The first call rang and rang before going to a dial tone. I swore, hung up and tried again. The taxi turned into Royal College Street; we were only a few minutes away from my home. I could tell that there was a chance of Luna picking up and I focused on the futures of her speaking to me, ignoring everything else, and so when the attack came I was caught completely by surprise. There was a surge of fire magic, a double bang as two tyres burst, and the taxi slewed left and hit a parked car at thirty miles an hour.

The next thing I remember is lying across the back seat at an awkward angle, my head spinning. There was blood in my mouth and my eyes felt fuzzy. I struggled to a sitting position to see the driver slumped over his steering wheel. My phone was gone somewhere, I could hear a hissing noise, and through the cracked windows I could see white smoke. Shaking my head, I leaned clumsily towards one of the doors, trying to get it open.

Before my fingers could find the handle, the door was yanked open from the other side. A pair of big hands reached in, grabbed me by my shirt, and dragged me out. I could hear voices and shouting in the distance, but all I could see through the smoke was the oval shimmer of a gate. Someone snapped out an order, and I was shoved towards the gate and through.

I came down on concrete with a painful thump. Twisting around, I saw other people following me through the gate. Three people. The gate shimmered and vanished, and I could see we were in some sort of warehouse. The man with the big hands bent down and hauled me to my feet again and, as my head cleared, I found myself staring into Cinder’s face.

‘Not so smart now, you bastard,’ Cinder growled.

I remember reading a book where some pretentious writer claimed there’s no moment of enlightenment more terrible than when you realise your parents are simple human beings. Personally, if you’ve grown up listening to your parents having screaming matches, realising that they’re simple human beings isn’t much of a revelation. In my opinion, the most terrible moment of enlightenment is the one where you realise you’re outflanked, outgunned and a sitting duck. It’s a horrible sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that can very easily be the last feeling you’ll ever have.

The room we were in was square and ugly with concrete walls, narrow slit windows high above the ground and stacks of crates in the corners. It was empty but for me and the three Dark mages. Cinder was there, holding me almost off the ground, and Khazad, his small black eyes glinting. I’d been so focused on the call that I hadn’t been looking into the future for danger and, looking at Cinder’s face, I knew that it might just have cost me my life.

Cinder shook me hard enough to make my teeth rattle. ‘I’m gonna burn you to ash, Verus. I’ll make it slow, so you can feel it. I’m gonna make you tell me which part to burn off next.’

‘No.’ Khazad’s expression was more evil than Cinder’s if anything. ‘Not till I’ve had my turn. He’s going to pay for that stunt at the ball.’

‘Gonna ask you this once,’ Cinder said, and pulled me close. ‘Where’s the girl? Where’s the key?’

‘You know,’ I said light-headedly, ‘I think you asked twice.’

Cinder hauled one massive arm back and smashed a punch into my face. If I hadn’t twisted it would have broken my nose; as it was it sent me back to the floor with stars flashing in front of my eyes. By the time they’d cleared Cinder had dragged me back up again. He drew back for another go.

‘Wait,’ a third voice said. Deleo stepped in front of me. She was still wearing her mask, and her eyes watched me coldly. ‘Give him a second.’

Cinder glowered but obeyed, and a moment later my head cleared. Cinder’s grip was digging painfully into my shoulders; I didn’t think I’d have much chance of breaking it even without the other mages in front of me. ‘Using the annuller was very neat,’ Deleo said once I’d gotten my breath back. Her voice was calm. ‘It stopped us from tracking down your girlfriend. So we decided it would be simpler to track you instead. We knew you’d go back to the museum. All we had to do was wait for you to leave.’ She leant in close, her blue eyes staring into mine, and there was a sudden fire burning behind them. ‘I told you this wasn’t over.’

I looked back at Deleo silently.

Deleo drew back, calm once again. ‘You’re leaving this warehouse in one of two ways. With us to where you hid that cube, or in a bag. Choose fast.’

I hesitated. Cinder grinned. Khazad was staring down at the floor. Deleo nodded. ‘Go ahead, Cinder. Start with his legs.’

‘Wait,’ I said quickly, trying to think. I needed time.

But as I spoke, Khazad did as well. ‘Something’s wrong.’

Cinder and Deleo looked at him, frowning. Khazad was staring around at the walls. ‘There’s something …’ His head snapped around. ‘A ward. This place is warded!’

‘They’re ours,’ Cinder grunted. He didn’t relax his grip, and didn’t look pleased to be interrupted.

‘Besides ours, you idiot! Someone’s been inside!’

‘That’s impossible,’ Deleo said. ‘No one could have gotten through the defences without us noticing.’

‘And I’m telling you they did!’ Khazad shook his head. ‘It’s too risky. We should kill him and go.’ Black energy flared up around his hand, and I knew my time was up.

But before Khazad could strike, a voice spoke from one side. ‘Your attention, please.’

Cinder dropped me to the concrete with a thump as he spun around. A man with dark hair and dressed in black had stepped out from behind a pile of crates. It was Morden.

If Morden was bothered by the sight of three Dark mages a hair’s breadth from attacking, he gave no sign of it. ‘Good morning, all of you.’ His voice was pleasant, and he held his hands clasped behind his back. ‘Cinder, Khazad, I’d prefer if you attempted no attacks.’

‘You said it was clear!’ Cinder hissed at Khazad under his breath.

‘I said we should go! If you hadn’t screwed up-’

Deleo made a quick motion and Cinder and Khazad fell silent. All three seemed to have forgotten me completely, their attention locked on Morden. ‘Master Morden,’ Deleo said levelly. ‘I don’t think this is your concern.’

‘Oh, don’t take it personally, Deleo.’ Morden sounded quite friendly. ‘You’ve done very well. But now it’s time you came with me.’

‘Thank you for the offer,’ Deleo said, her voice carefully controlled. ‘The answer is still no.’

Morden smiled then, just slightly. ‘I’m afraid you’re under a misconception, Deleo. This time you’re not being given a choice.’

Deleo stood quite still. Khazad took a pace forward, and his voice was soft and deadly. Black energy flared around his right hand. ‘There’s three of us and one of you, old man.’

I craned my neck, trying to look around, but Morden seemed to be alone. I wanted to run but knew any movement would draw everyone’s attention. ‘Yes, yes,’ Morden said tolerantly. ‘Bravado is all very well, but please realise you’re in no position to argue. Now, I’m quite impressed you were able to detect the carrier ward, but if you think for a moment you should realise there must be many more, and quite frankly, at your level of ability-’

‘Shut up!’ Khazad said with a snarl. ‘I can see your ward! It’s nothing!’

Morden sighed. ‘Do pay attention, Khazad. As I was saying, behind that ward are many others, and all of you are well within the blast radius. I’d prefer to do this peacefully, but-’

‘Del,’ Cinder rumbled.

Deleo hesitated, then made a swift motion. Cinder darted left, and energy flared up around Khazad as he drew back to strike.

The entire area vanished in a black wave. A light-eating pulse swept over all of us, nauseating and weakening and dazing me all at once. I felt my strength fade, and crumpled to the ground.

There was a moment of silence, then as if from a distance, I heard Morden speaking. His voice seemed to be fading, growing fainter and fainter. ‘They always have to learn the hard way, don’t they? Pack them up and make sure they’re still alive.’

There was more, but I didn’t hear it. Blackness swallowed me, and everything went dark.